Moulay Ismail of Morocco died in 1727 with hundreds of sons, and his army made and unmade sultans for thirty years

Moulay Ismail became sultan of Morocco in 1672, at about 25, and ruled until 1727. In 1704 the French envoy Dominique Busnot reported 600 sons by four wives and 500 concubines. Textbooks and Guinness give 888 children. A 2014 study in PLOS ONE calculated that about 1,171 children was biologically possible. Ismail named his son Ahmad adh-Dhahabi heir apparent in 1718. When Ismail died in Meknes on 22 March 1727, the commanders of his Black Guard, the Abid al-Bukhari, and the Udaya troops, with the ulama and ministers, put Ahmad on the throne. The army Ismail had built then chose and deposed sultans. Ahmad was deposed in March 1728 and restored, and three of Ismail's sons held the throne in turn by 1733. After Ahmad died, his half-brother Abdallah was proclaimed on 5 March 1729. The Abid al-Bukhari deposed him in 1734, and he fled to his mother's family at Oued Noun. He was recalled, and deposed again in 1736, 1741, 1742 and 1747. He was sultan six separate times. He died on the throne at Dar Debibagh near Fez on 10 November 1757. His son Sidi Mohammed, his only surviving heir, succeeded him, and order returned. Ismail and Ahmad are buried in the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail in Meknes, built in 1703.